


and I am coming to you

by MercyBuckets



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: Belter Creole, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Remix, Episode s03e12 Congregation, F/F, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Introspection, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Tags Are Hard, The Expanse Fandom Exchange, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 02:39:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15899229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/pseuds/MercyBuckets
Summary: Naomi is dreading this conversation until she gets to the Behemoth and Camina isn't there.





	and I am coming to you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helpless-squeals](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=helpless-squeals).



> For helpless-squeals on tumblr who asked for Naomi/Drummer, hurt/comfort, related to Drummer's injury. This went in a different direction than I thought it would so I hope you still enjoy it. I wanted to try to capture the feeling of waiting and not knowing that comes when someone you love is in danger and you can't be there. I hope I did it justice. 
> 
> Warnings for canon-typical violence, lots of Belter swearing, and a very brief and non-specific reference to past abuse
> 
> Mercy

Naomi knows. She knows the minute Diogo pulls a gun. Camina wouldn’t have gone with that, too blunt, too obvious. Camina would know, pulling a gun on Naomi’s boys won’t make her compliant, it’ll make her angry. So Camina isn’t in charge anymore. The only question is whether she’s locked up with Holden or if Naomi’s too late and her body’s floating somewhere in space.

‘Drop it Amos,’ she says. She’s loath to give up any advantage with Ashford apparently running this rustbucket but she needs to know what happened here, to find out the truth.

Amos drops his weapon too easily. On anyone one else, she’d say it was a bluff. She’s lost touch with him and she just prays that it isn’t too late to salvage their relationship.

She’s yanked out of her thoughts by Diogo. ‘You’re coming with us,’ he says.

Amos has a gun— not the some one— pointed at Diogo’s stupid head before he’s done speaking. ‘She’s not going anywhere.’

‘She’s a deserter _sasa ke_? She’s ours by rights.’

Amos might not trust her right now but he’ll still rip out Diogo’s throat and get them all killed.

‘She’s _ours_ ,’ snaps Alex, ‘As much as she is anybody’s.’

‘Stay out of our business, _pomang_ ,’ says one of the rowdier men by Diogo’s side.

Amos growls and swings the gun at the one who had spoken.

Naomi hovers between annoyance and blind terror. ‘That’s enough boys. No need to get excited. I’ll go.’

‘Like hell you will,’ says Amos.

‘Naomi!’ Alex exclaims at the same time.

She feels like screaming. She doesn’t. ‘Amos put the gun down. I’m going and that’s final.’ Amos looks at her like she can’t be trusted with herself and it makes her even angrier. She grits her teeth and walks slowly over to Diogo’s side of the little stand-off.

Alex looks back and forth between Naomi and Amos like he can’t tell who’s crazier.

‘Cuff her,’ Diogo says to the man who had spoken before.

Who needs to worry about the ring when these idiots are going to get them all killed right here. ‘ _Mi kom. To na wanya ando nakangepensa_.’

Diogo puffs out his chest. ‘ _Keting sasa to, welwala?_ ’

Something inside of her snaps. She closes the distance between them in less than a breath. ‘Here is what’s going to happen, _sabakawala_. You are going to take me to Ashford and the grownups are going to talk or, you can start a bloodbath here and loose more _beltalowda_ for nothing but your pride.’

Diogo’s face turns an interesting shade of red and he tenses as if he wants to hit her but he backs off at the last moment. ‘You answer to _da_ _bossmeng_ , deserter.’

Satisfied she’s out of immediate danger from that quarter, Naomi turns to her boys. ‘I’ll be back with information,’ she says.

Alex looks unhappy but resigned. Amos looks angry but that doesn’t mean much coming from him. They don’t like it but they aren’t going to get themselves killed over it. She turns back to Diogo. ‘Let’s go.’

* * *

‘Naomi Nagata,’ Ashford sounds slimy as ever.

‘What happened to Drummer?’ she demands. _Did you lock her up? Hurt her? Space her?_

‘She was injured during the deceleration,’ he says. It’s too casual, almost dismissive. There is something she’s missing here.

‘Injured how? I want to see her.’

Ashford waves his hand. ‘She is in a healing coma, recovering from surgery and we will not waste an engineer over sentimentality. You will work.’

‘I will work when I see her,’ says Naomi, ‘ _a_ _nd_ Jim Holden.’

‘We have had trouble with our grid and it persists. Fix it and you are free to see whoever you wish.’

‘Is it true am under arrest then?’ she demands.

‘Nothing so crude,’ says Ashford. ‘But you will fix this ship.’

Naomi imagines Camina laying still and pale on a medic’s table. Her blood boils. She should be there. ‘Show me the grid,’ she snarls.

‘This way _sesata_ ,’ says a pale skinny man a tattoo that reached across the bridge of his nose.

 _In time_ , she thinks. _The second they look away I’m coming Camina._

* * *

 

Naomi flings the third door open but it’s just another store room. _Where are you Camina? I don’t have much time_. She had shorted a circuit and slipped away in the resulting chaos, muttering something about tools as a slapdash cover. It won’t buy her much time. The second someone realizes she’s gone, Diogo and his posse will be looking for her. She tries to put it out of her mind and focus on the search.

Her hand is on the keypad of door number four when she hears a crash and muffled noise of pain from within. ‘Camina?’

The door slides open. ‘What are you doing here?’ The words are bitter and filling with barely controlled pain.

Naomi rushes forward. The other woman’s face is set in hard lines, from pain, or anger, or both. She lays on her back, legs stretched out in front of her, cot propped up a few inches, with a mess of metal and tools on her lap. ‘Camina! Ashford said you were in a coma!’

‘ _I_ don’t abandon those who need me.’ Camina won’t look up.

Naomi’s eyes sting but she pushes it aside. ‘What happened? What are you doing?’

Camina finally looks up and her eyes are full of angry tears. Naomi watches her blink them back in numb shock. She’s never seen Camina cry. ‘I crushed half my spine to dust. Ashford, _da pashengwala_ , got me to the medics while you chased after your _inyabaratna_.’

‘Camina, you know I didn’t _leave_ you,’ says Naomi. She’s crying for real now. She could have lost this woman and not known until too late. But if she had stayed, her boys would be dead. She feels sick.

‘You _did_ ,’ Camina is almost shouting now. ‘You left. You walked away for them, just as you promised me you wouldn’t.’

Anger sparks inside Naomi. ‘I had to know you would let me leave. I’m not a thing to be kept locked up Camina.’

‘Are you mine or aren’t you?’ demands Camina.

‘I love you, but you know I’m mine first,’ says Naomi. If anyone should understand this, it’s Camina.

‘And what am I then?’

‘ _Mi amolof_ ,’ Naomi manages to say. ‘Tell me what you are doing to yourself?’

Camina’s face goes blank and she hands Naomi a power-cell. ‘Fix this.’

 _Power-cell_. Suddenly it’s clear. ‘If you do this, they probably won't be able to repair the damage organically.’

‘This a war. _Mi du keting mi mowteng_.’

Naomi grabs a screwdriver and bites her lip. ‘Can I sit?’

‘I can’t stop you.’

‘That’s not what I asked.’

Camina gestures for her her sit on the end of the narrow cot. ‘You left.’

‘I came back,’ says Naomi. She takes a screwdriver from Camina’s pile and begins to unscrew the cap. ‘I didn’t leave _you_.’

After a beat of silence Camina’s hand slips over her own. ‘ _Kowltim kom bek_ Naomi.’

‘Always, I will always come back to you.’ She slips the power cell into place and the pile of metal makes a whirring sound.

‘Help me?’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Help me and we will walk to Jim Holden’s cell, set him loose, march to the bridge and take back our ship. You and me together.’

‘ _Kowltim_ ,’ says Naomi. She lays her hand on top of Camina’s. ‘Together.’

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Belter translations (excuse my probably incorrect grammar, I've never done Belter sentences this long)  
> sasa ke - You know?, Got it?  
> pomeng - Martian  
> Mi kom. To na wanya ando nakangepensa. - I'm coming. Don't be stupid.  
> Keting sasa to, welwala? - What do you know, traitor? Welwala is a "inner planet-lover"  
> sabakawala - asshole  
> beltalowda - us Belters  
> da bossmeng - the boss  
> sesata - sister  
> da pashengwala - the fucker  
> inyabaratna - inner-brothers, I made this franken-word up, Drummer is using it to imply that Naomi's made herself a new family, and abandoned her Belter roots  
> mi amolof - my love  
> Mi du keting mi mowteng. - I do what I need to.  
> Kowltim kom bek. - Always come back.  
> kowltim - always


End file.
